USDA provides grant to study air emissions

The research will be funded by a $500,000 grant from the National Research Initiative on air quality, administered by the USDA.

Iowa State University is the lead institution on the project, which is a collaborative effort with the University of Minnesota.

Hongwei Xin, professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, said the endeavor will be the first federally funded project that systematically collects air emissions from US turkey operations, which play an important part in US poultry production.

The project will continuously measure emissions of ammonia and particulate matter from two mechanically ventilated turkey barns for one year. The measurements will be done at a commercial facility in central Iowa that produces tom turkeys, and at a University of Minnesota research farm that produces hen turkeys.

The project also will monitor the indoor air quality at several locations in naturally ventilated areas. State-of-the-art mobile air emissions monitoring labs developed by Iowa State University scientists will be used.

The project also involves industry leaders representing the Iowa Turkey Federation and the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association. This multidisciplinary team has a combined expertise in air quality, animal housing and environmental control, poultry nutrition and turkey production.

Xin said this project will help establish an objective and urgently needed database of ammonia and particulate matter emission factors for commercial turkey operations typical of the US turkey industry.